Halloween is a fun time for kids and adults alike. But if your kid gets a cavity from eating too many sweet treats during Halloween and needs a dental filling, your fun time may be spoiled! So how do you make sure you and your kids can celebrate Halloween without cavities? Just follow these simple tips from We Care Dental Care.
Your kids shouldn’t be let loose to eat as much Halloween candy as they want. That’s not only bad for their teeth, but it’s bad for their overall health, too. It’s best for you to take control of Halloween candy consumption.
Consider putting Halloween candy somewhere your kids can’t access or hiding it in a secret location to make sure your kids can’t sneak candy without you knowing. By doing so, you’ll be able to control your kid’s candy consumption during Halloween.
Eating sugary sweets constantly throughout the day creates the perfect breeding ground for bacteria and cavities. For this reason, you should avoid letting your kids snack on candy throughout the day. Instead, have one or two “candy sessions” each day when you give them multiple pieces of candy that they can eat all at once.
It’s best to eat candy after you and your kids have eaten a meal. They’ll be full, so they won’t be able to eat as much candy. Eating a meal also stimulates the production of saliva, which helps wash away sticky sugar and prevents cavities.
Gummy candies like gummy worms, sticky candies like taffy, and hard candies like jawbreakers are all quite bad for your child’s dental health. They tend to get stuck in the teeth and are made almost exclusively of sugar.
Minimize the consumption of these sweet treats. Instead, your kids should mostly eat chocolate candies. Chocolate is not that bad for your teeth and is easy to clean away by brushing or rinsing.
Brushing after eating candy is the best way to prevent cavities, but you may find it hard to implement multiple additional brushing sessions each day. Another good option is to rinse with mouthwash. This will help remove sugar from your children’s mouths. Even drinking a big glass of water will help rinse away sugar if you can’t find the time to brush or rinse.
That brings us to another secret weapon in the war against cavities, for both adults and kids. Sugar-free gum. Chewing a stick of sugar-free gum helps remove sugar from the mouth and stimulates saliva production, which really helps combat tooth decay.
Best of all, sugar-free gum is tasty and freshens the breath, so you won’t have any trouble getting your kids to chew a stick of gum after they eat some Halloween candy!
With just a few preventive steps, you can keep your children’s teeth healthy this Halloween. So make sure you follow these tips to keep your children’s teeth (and your own teeth) cavity-free.
Need more information, or to schedule a pre or post-Halloween checkup for your little ones with Dr. Benjamin Burkitt? Get in touch with We Care Dental Care at (540) 427-7274 to get started, or stop by our office at 3433 Orange Ave, NE Suite A1, Roanoke, VA 24012.